INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE
LEFT The Gildersbeck herd’s new
40/40 rapid exit parlour.
ABOVE James Simpson farms
with his parents, overlooking
Coverdale.
Sarah Liddle visited the Simpson family’s
between deciding to go ahead
and ordering what transpired to
Gildersbeck herd in North Yorkshire to discover
be the 40/40 rapid exit Westfalia
parlour. During this time they
how they have adopted new technology on the
looked at a number of parlours.
farm in order to remain producing milk
For them robots were never really

considered, as James thinks he
personally could not manage
L
ess than two months ago, the 300 cow Gildersbeck herd started going
cows in that fashion. A rotary
through a new 40/40 rapid exit parlour. This is the result of a huge finan-
parlour was also discarded as it
cial commitment stemming from a genuine desire to continue milking cows.
was thought that would require
In an attempt to take the business forward, the Simpsons and their staff are
too much labour. The new
embracing and selecting technology to make things easier and more efficient.
parlour sees one man milking,
In James Simpson’s own words, “The old parlour needed replacing because it
with a further person moving
was knackered!” With the farm 850 feet above sea level (rising to 1300ft) and
groups around and bedding up.
situated in the beautiful area of Coverdale (a stone’s throw from the Forbidden
A rapid exit style parlour was
Corner, visited by HYB rally goers in 2007, and the gallops of Middleham),
always the preferred option, as to
attract quality milkers and staff,
there will be few places more picturesque to milk cows. As James enjoys dairy
it is paramount in James’s mind
farming, making the decision to stay in production was easy.
that milking should be made as
He remembers advice from the accountant who offered three long term
clean and efficient as possible.
options for the business a number of years ago. The first suggestion of selling
Cleanliness, efficiency and
up was never really an option; the second was to carry on as before with the
meticulous attention to detail
old facilities, which would jeopardize staff morale, reduce efficiency long term
are borne out by the installation
and eventually mean the cows had to be sold. The final idea was to reinvest
of the Automated Dipping and
and increase efficiency, driving the business forward and this is the route the
Flushing (ADF) system in the new
Simpsons decided to follow.
parlour. With a rolling SCC of 167,
With James and his father John having decided to replace the plant, their
and Bactoscan of 28, it is too early
next move was to decide what facilities to install. About a year elapsed to tell if the new parlour or ADF
have influenced these figures.
In James’ opinion, sanitising the
cluster between each cow has to
48 THE JOURNAL APRIL 2009
e2-09 Gildersbeck.indd 2 01/04/2009 10:14:14
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